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Vashi2Panvel.Com: Navi Mumbai: July 26: 26/7, the tragic dateline repeats itself after one year today. Every mumbaikar was expected to sport white today to express their grief for the catastrophe. With the pains, trauma, fear and distress still afresh in the minds of the people, they have accepted these tragedies as an awful part of their life and have moved on. The impact of the catastrophe was such that people are still horrified on seeing heavy rains. Today, one year after the deluge, people recall some of their experiences and reveal the alteration in their life underwent after the calamity.
Geeta Giridhar, who is one of the sufferers of the 26/7 tragedy recalls it as the worst time of her life. “It was bad situation, our entire house was in water but I am happy that none of us were in the house at that time,” she says. “Now it seems like a bad phase which is over, hope this time monsoon is not as dreadful as it was the last time,” she adds.

The pattern and the outlook of the people towards life has also changed. “Our attitude towards life has changed a lot after seeing the pains of the people,” expresses Sushma Pandey, who was stuck up in Bandra on 26/7 last year. “After you experience something terrible in your life its only then you realize the true value of life,” she adds.

Last year the government authorities faced a lot of flak from the common man when they were unsuccessful to provide the right amount of security and relief to the people at the time when he needed it the most. But today the government has emerged to be as a much more responsible and reliant body. They are now more aware about the relief work and the management in such crisis situation. “Though the previous years experience is not worth remembering, the disaster management cell has worked out many safety techniques over the period of one year,” feels Lata Lakkimar, who is a Vashi resident. “The people who have lost their life cannot be brought back but the best thing would be not to repeat the same mistakes again and be better prepared for a disaster although god forbid such a incident should not happen again,” she avers.

Milantirtha, which is a socio-cultural organisation, which is situated in New Panvel, Navi Mumbai and Bharat Sevashram Sangha (Vashigaon Branch), a renowned NGO, had joined hands together to provide aids to the people affected by the floods. To express their genuine concern these NGO’s has extended their helping hand by organizing a community kitchen for a week, feeding almost over a thousand people daily and distributing milk among infants and clothes. Apart from this they also distributed mattresses and utensils among the needy, gave away school bags to children from local schools and also organized a free medical check-up and also set up dispensaries in many complexes. This relief service was entirely funded by the well-wishers and donators at Milantirtha.

Sayantan Bhoumik, one of the key members of Milanteerth association feels that there is some amount of fear and tension among the people in general, which was reflected when the people hurried back home during the heavy rains in the first week of July this year. “However, this year people are better equipped to face the wrath of nature. Apart from that I also feel that the authorities have also done the needful taken like ensuring the pumping out system works fine,” he suggests.

Time moves on, life moves on, tragedies come, tragedies go but what keeps the city going is its spirit to run against time and tragedies for a peaceful life. It might sound clichéd but nonetheless we must salute the spirit of Mumbai.

Smriti Mishra